tommymc

Does anyone recognize the sticker on this tandem rim? Though the print is gone the color and outline shape is rather distinctive. It's a 700c 36h with offset drilling. A classic box cross-section maybe a little wider than a CR!8. The hub is a Phil about 140mm wide with an unusual 7 speed freewheel/cassette(???). The cogs slide onto a stepped body after a threaded retainer ring it removed. It is a Shimano by marking. How does this thing come off? There are only two small pin holes in the body face. I don't have any use for the hub but I'd rather not cut the spokes and make a bad job worse.
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Rick

It doesn't look like a freehub to me. Looks like you need the appropriate freewheel remover.

Alcanbrad

The sticker says “design by Keith Bontrager” so my guess is it’s Bontrager. Question then would be if it was pre or post Trek acquisition of Bontrager. Trek tech support may be able to help, or may there more on the inter webs. I have no idea on the freehub/wheel. Try dropping the image onto the google search bar and see if it matches anything. Also, Sheldon Brown may have something.

jccaclimber

That is a freewheel. You do not need to take the sprockets off to remove the freewheel. It can be removed with a splined tool on the ID. You may have to remove the axle to get access to this spline, but sometimes they fit without that. A Park FR1.3 may be the correct spline tool, but several of the older spline tools look very similar but are not compatible. Safer to take it to a shop and confirm.

You are correct to remove the freewheel before removing any spokes. The torque to remove an old freewheel can exceed what it takes to twist the hub body in half, so if the drive side spokes have been cut you can end up SOL. Remember this when it feels like it's taking too much torque to get it off. My preferred method is to put the freewheel remover tool in a stout well mounted bench vise and use the rim as a lever. It still often takes a solid grunt on a normal bike, and I'm sure a tandem is that much tighter.

Do not remove the plate with the two pinholes, those will disassemble the freewheel, and getting them back together is a bit of an art that involves the right combination of grease, skill, dental floss (yes, really), and good luck. Enough of an art that standard freewheel re-lubrication directions are to clean the outside, run some oil through the back without opening them and then carry on.

headwind15

I had a Trek dealership and have some of those older Bontrager rims in my basement. I don't know if you need the ERD? (effective rim diameter). I can't believe what jccaclimber wrote about dental floss. He is spot on (assuming he is writing about to hold the pauls in while putting the thing back together.) Trust me, he's right - don't take it apart.

jccaclimber

Yes, holding the pawls back. I've done it without, but it's an awful lot easier with. For those who have only dealt with loose balls in hubs or headsets, the problem with the bearings inside freewheels is that they are often on such a small arc of race material that the CG of the bearing is actually past the race and hanging out in the air. The only thing holding them in place to begin with is the grease you use. The pawl has to cross through them on install, and so tends to knock them out of place if not retained. Of course there isn't really any access to the pawls when doing this, other than tying them in place with fine string, fishing line, dental floss, etc. which can then be pulled out later.
On the plus side, you could easily go a lifetime of bicycle riding without ever needing to do it.

tommymc

It is primarily the ERD that I'm after. By chance I pulled out of the barn a Bontrager Fairlane wheel and it is identical in shape and width to the mystery rim. It also has a note on the label "ERD 604". In the SPOCALC and EDD calculators are listed both symmetrical and offset Fairlanes with an ERD of 607. I better wait till I get the wheel apart and measure the rim directly before ordering spokes.